EXTENSIONS OF DARWINISM 299 



all injured; and large quantities of such sugar are still made 

 for home consumption, the molasses produced from ii l)oing 

 said to be superior in flavour to that from the sugar-cane. 

 Here surely is a verv renuirkable case of an excessive sur- 

 plus product which is of gTcat use to man, and, so far as 

 we can see, to man only. The same phenomenon of a sur- 

 plus product is presented by the Para rubber-trees (Sii)h«jnia, 

 many species), from which, at the pro]ier season, larttc quan- 

 tities of the precious sap can be withdrawn annually for very 

 long periods, without injuring the trees, or producing a dimi- 

 nution of the supply. There are also many other useful veg- 

 etable products, among those referred to in our fifteenth chaj)- 

 ter, to which the same remark will apply ; and it seems prrib- 

 able that we owe the whole of these, and many others not yet 

 discovered in the vast unexplored tropical forests, to this far- 

 reaching principle of " germinal selection.'^ 



General Conclusions as to Life-Development 



Before quitting the subject of the course of development of 

 the entire world of life as shown by the geological record, to 

 which the present chapter is in a measure supplementary, it 

 will be w^ell to say something as to its broader features from 

 the point of view adopted in this work. This is, that beyond 

 all the phenomena of nature and their immediate causes and 

 laws there is Mind and Purpose; and that the ultimate pur- 

 pose is (so far as we can discern) the development of mankind 

 for an enduring spiritual existence. With this object in view- 

 it would be important to supply all possible aids that a ma- 

 terial world can give for the training and education of man's 

 higlier intellectual, moral, and aesthetic nature. If this view 

 is the true one, we may look upon our Universe, in all its parts 

 and durinc; its whole existence, as slowlv ]>ut surelv marchiui:: 

 onwards to a predestined end ; and this involves the further 

 conception, that now that man /m.s^ boon dovolojiod, tliat lio is 

 in full possession of this earth, and that upon his proper use 

 of it his adequate preparation for the future life depends, then 



